#jackpotshipping

His ass is not focused.

for the purposes of this I’m including Yami is this weird-ass polycule, but for the most part when I’m thinking/writing about yullijou/jackpotshipping he’s not really a part of this - the focus is on what the Puzzle is doing to/with Yugi and Jonouchi. but for this he’s relevant, so

anyway!

I’ve been thinking about like. What Does The Puzzle Want. For Yugi is is a bit more clear but for Jonouchi this is more of a question mark, and I wanted to dig into how I’m thinking about this.

For me this is how the Puzzle works:

1) it’s sapient

2) is able to communicate with the person wearing it (usually via sensory cues and emotional impressions - not really any discernible words), and communicate with other people around it in a much more limited capacity. (The psychic/magic equivalent of “Hey! Pay attention to me!”)

3) it wants to be alive

4) it resents being used like a tool

the first two points are the ones that prob have the most basis in canon - it (along with the other Millennium Items) are stated to have wills of their own, and the Puzzle (and Yami) manage to very briefly communicate with Jonouchi during the Black Crown Fire. We can kind of also infer point four from the same arc - when Mr. Clown attempts to solve the Puzzle, it immediately starts pulling some 4D maze bullshit to deter him. (And if Yugi's comment about "making it angry" is any indication, the Puzzle has also done this to Yugi once or twice...)

The third point, I confess, is purely headcanon.

I think the Puzzle kind of remembers being alive.

It never was alive - but its constituent parts, the people of Kul Elna, were, and I think some tiny part of it remembers this, even though no single person from that horrific act remains intact. And even though it has no real way to experience life, it craves it, reaches out for it - only to be repelled by the people who try to solve it to gain power, who want to use it as a tool.

Until Yugi.

Yugi, who treats the Puzzle like... a puzzle. A toy. A treasure, something precious, because it makes him happy and keeps him company. Yeah, Yugi cares about the wish the Puzzle may or may not grant, but mostly he enjoys the challenge of trying to solve the Puzzle - so much so that he tries for eight years before he succeeds.

The Puzzle can feel life through Yugi's touch, through the way he chats to the Puzzle late into the night. (And, if you're into @jack2-0's yullium at all (which I am), through offerings of blood. Yugi's a little freak like that.) And it's so tantalizing, such a gasp of fresh air after three thousand years of nothing.

And then Yugi's the one to finally solve the Puzzle! to make it whole again, at long last! How can it do anything but love this boy who has treated it so well?

As for Jonouchi...

I think the Puzzle likes Jonouchi at least in part because of how much Yugi loves Jonouchi. It likes him because Jonouchi protects and cares for Yugi, just like the Puzzle wants to protect Yugi. And even thought Jonouchi stole a piece of the Puzzle, he also returned it - part of the reason the Puzzle is whole again.

And notably, the Puzzle uses a specific power only for Jonouchi - the ability to find someone and show a vision of their location to the wearer. (Used in Chapter 12, and later in the Duelist Kingdom arc.)

(And like. Obviously I don't have to get into how Yugi and Jonouchi feel about each other. Daisuki da real, etc etc etc)

I admit this all like. a pretty thin justification for a ship that's mostly about weird soulfucking and romantic body horror. but y'know. ships have been shipped on much less

"hey what were those bits about soulfucking and blood offerings?"

Im assuming you meant my New Gods stuff.

It was less about the killing, it was something he brushed off after climbing out of hell the first time, but more so he felt that Wukong got EVERYTHING. The loving family, friends, the fame, the second chance, a peaceful life of retirement, etc.

His plan and deal with the DC was that he would turn Wukong in and thus get his own freedom. And in his mind it was the perfect revenge.

And its sorta running away from me into a small collection of drabbles (ﾟωﾟ；)